Copyright

A reader asked how to promote your writing, when you write more and more. You can promote everything, it takes too much time. She was asking about promoting ebooks, specifically. She’s written around 15.

It’s a challenge. Do the best you can. With ebooks, you can try:

Bundling them. Try compiling three or more ebooks which are related into a new ebook. Don’t remove the original ebooks from sale;

You’re using a blog to promote your novels: what can you write about?

Historical and historical romance novelists have it easy. They can share fascinating info from their research on their blogs. Two Nerdy History Girls do it well.

English novelist Kate Mosse blogged her novel Labyrinth; here’s one of her posts from 2003. She shows that blogging your novels works. I read her blog at the time, and bought Labyrinth when it was released. The novel became a huge bestseller. In 2003, there weren’t as many novelists blogging as there are today. I’m sure that Kate’s blog helped Labyrinth’s success.

Julian Stockwin writes wonderful historical novels set in the Georgian period, the Thomas Kydd series. I’ve been receiving his monthly newsletter for years. I just checked, and sure enough, he has a blog, which covers his research travels, the background to his books, and much more.

To repeat: you can blog about anything you like. It’s your blog. Blog about your family, your hobbies — whatever. Just remember to mention what you’re working on, and when your next novel will be released.

Everyone’s different. Follow your intuition. Blog about whatever is fun for you to talk about.

You’re blogging your novel: how do you tell readers you’re setting that novel aside for now?

You don’t need to tell readers anything. Just start blogging about your new novel.

Important tip: stay positive. Some authors blog about their writing challenges. It’s a mistake. We’ve all got problems. Your blog’s a promotional tool. No one needs to know that you’re sick of your characters and want to kick them off a tall cliff. If you’re sick of your current novel, and are starting a new one, just start blogging about your new novel.

Just start blogging: you’ll find stuff to talk about, I promise

You’re writing a novel. That’s exciting. Get your blog’s readers excited about your novel, and you’ll have readers who are eager to buy it on the day you upload it to Amazon.

Ebook Dominance: sell more copies of your ebooks, every day

Discover the marketing secrets of bestselling authors — you can market in minutes, from the comfort of your sofa…

How would you feel if your sales doubled, then tripled — and then YOU hit the Kindle hot sellers’ lists?

Ebook Dominance helps you to turbocharge your marketing, and sell more ebooks today.

Authors complain about marketing, but it’s necessary, otherwise you won’t make sales. There are endless ways to market your ebooks.

Sadly if you’re relying on tags and keywords to make your ebooks discoverable, you’ll hit a snag. Some authors on Amazon cram their titles with a dozen keywords, so your book is pushed back ten or 30 pages deep in the search results.

Authors have complained about keyword-cramming for years. Sooner or later Amazon will conduct a purge. In the meantime, do some easy promotions yourself. It’s not difficult, and it needn’t take much time.

The process I share in Ebook Dominance works. And yes, it takes just 15 minutes a day. Be consistent; do a little each day. You’ll start selling, and then you’ll sell more.

What if you can’t spend 15 minutes a day?

For most of my pen names I can’t spend 15 minutes a day either. I’d be lucky to spend 30 minutes a month promoting most of them.

There’s a solution — your readers’ list.

The marketing key: your readers’ list

As soon as I set up a new pen name, I set up a readers’ mailing list for that name. I add the signup code to a page on Facebook, or on a blog. Then I add the signup page’s URL to the back matter of each ebook under that pen name.

Try this simple strategy yourself.

You’ll slowly get subscribers. To build subscribers quickly, make an ebook free, and then promote it on one of the many “free ebooks” promotional websites. Or run some Facebook ads.

Be patient: everything you do counts, it’s cumulative

The other day I burst out laughing when I read a gleeful email message from a student. She forwarded her message of her pending payment from Amazon, and told me how much the payment was. The sum made me blink. I laughed because this was student who “hated” marketing. Her message ended with: “you were right! I’m glad I didn’t quit.”

Don’t you quit either. Market your ebooks. It doesn’t take much effort.

Ebook Dominance: sell more copies of your ebooks, every day

Discover the marketing secrets of bestselling authors — you can market in minutes, from the comfort of your sofa…

How would you feel if your sales doubled, then tripled — and then YOU hit the Kindle hot sellers’ lists?

Ebook Dominance helps you to turbocharge your marketing, and sell more ebooks today.

“a SERIAL is a long story. It’s a novel which is broken up into a part-work. It’s similar to a novel, but it’s written differently, so that each part (episode) has a climax — something that entices readers to read the next episode, and the next.”

Make more ebook sales of all your fiction, when you write a serial

Fiction serials are platform-builders… consider writing at least one. Not only does a serial build your confidence, it also builds readers’ confidence in you. They’ll join your mailing list, and this has huge benefits for ebooks you’ve already published, and ebooks you’ll publish in future.